ITIL® 4 Create, Deliver and Support (CDS): Your companion to the ITIL 4 Managing Professional CDS certification

By Claire Agutter and Katie Villa

ITIL® 4 Create, Deliver and Support

If you’ve achieved your ITIL® 4 Foundation certificate, you’re probably planning the next stage in your ITIL journey and which qualification to work towards. ITIL 4 Create, Deliver and Support (CDS) provides essential knowledge and capabilities for service management professionals, focusing on a value stream based approach to IT-enabled products and services – a must-have skillset practitioners should seek beyond Foundation level.

The majority of this book is based on the official AXELOS ITIL® 4: Create, Deliver and Support publication and the associated Create, Deliver and Support Managing Professional syllabus. It provides students with the information they need to pass the Create, Deliver and Support exam, and help them become a successful practitioner.

Suitable for existing ITIL v3 experts, ITIL 4 Managing Professional (MP) students, ITSM (IT service management) practitioners who are adopting ITIL 4, approved training organisations, IT service managers, IT managers and those in IT support roles.

The guide focuses on:

• Service value system key concepts and challenges;
• Using a shift-left approach;
• Planning and managing resources in the service value system;
• The use and value of technology across the service value system;
• ITIL practices and value streams for new services and user support;
• How to create, deliver and support services; and
• Exam preparation.

A useful tool throughout your career

In addition to being an essential study aid, the author — a seasoned ITSM professional — also provides additional guidance throughout the book which you can lean on once your training and exam are over. The book includes her own practical experience from which she gives advice and points to think about along the way so that you can refer back to this book for years to come – long after you’ve passed your exam.

The essential link between your ITIL qualification and the real world – buy this book today!

ITIL® is a registered trade mark of the PeopleCert group. Used under licence from PeopleCert. All rights reserved.

Part of Claire Agutter’s ITIL 4 Series. For more information about the other books in the series, visit: www.itgovernancepublishing.co.uk/author/claire-agutter  

• Language: English
• Publisher: itgovernance
• Release date: Nov 25, 2021
• ISBN: 9781787783393

Claire Agutter

Claire Agutter is interested in anything that helps IT work better. She has more than two decades experience as a service management consultant, trainer, speaker and author. She is the founder of Scopism, an organisation which focuses on publications, events and consultancy linked to SIAM (Service Integration and Management). She recruited and led the team of volunteers that contributed to the SIAM Foundation and Professional Bodies of Knowledge publications and created the online SIAM community. From 2018-23, she was nominated by Computer Weekly as one of the most influential women in UK tech. A long time IT Governance Publishing collaborator, Claire has written ITIL® study guides covering both ITIL® v3 and ITIL® 4, with her ITIL Foundation Essentials ITIL 4 Edition – The ultimate revision guide rating 4.6 on Amazon. To view all her publications, visit: https://www.itgovernancepublishing.co.uk/author/claire-agutter.

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

How to use this book

The majority of this book is based on the ITIL® 4: Create, Deliver and Support publication and the associated ITIL® 4 Specialist Create, Deliver and Support syllabus.

The ITIL® 4: Create, Deliver and Support publication describes how to make service management work, how to adapt and adopt best practices, and how to make the Service Value System a reality for your organization.

CDS is described as the ‘glue’ of the service lifecycle and focuses on how service management delivers value. Value itself is a moving target – what is valuable today may not be tomorrow. The key themes related to create, deliver and support and its supporting management practices are the focus of the CDS publication and associated training and examination.

In this companion to the CDS syllabus, in addition to helping you prepare for your certification, I want to give you advice and guidance that will lead to you using this book once your training and exam are complete. I have added some of my own practical experience and give advice and points to think about along the way. My goal is for you to refer back to this book in years to come, not just put it away once you’ve passed your exam. With this extra content, you’ll find this book is an excellent supplement to any training course and a useful resource in your ongoing career.

As you read the book, assume that all the content is related to the syllabus unless it is highlighted in one of two ways:

Something for you: a small exercise for you to complete to apply the ITIL 4 concepts in your own role, or a point for you to think about. This content is not examinable.

Practical experiences: any content marked out with this image is based on my own experience and is not examinable.

The content highlighted as something for you to think about or practical experience might also refer to the Banksbest case study you can find in Appendix A. I’ll use the case study to give an example of how something would work in the real world, or to help you apply what you’re reading about. Case studies can really help to bring abstract concepts to life. The case study is not examinable but using it will help you gain a deeper understanding of the CDS concepts. Let’s start with something for you now:

Why not read the case study and make a note of your first impressions of the Banksbest organisation and its plans before you start to study the CDS content in this book?

Unless stated otherwise, all quotations are from ITIL® 4 Create, Deliver and Support and Practice Guides published by AXELOS in 2020. Copyright © AXELOS Limited 2020. Used under permission of AXELOS Limited. All rights reserved.

CHAPTER 1: SERVICE VALUE SYSTEM KEY CONCEPTS AND CHALLENGES

The first chapters in this book look at how to plan and build a service value system (SVS) to create, deliver and support services. This includes:

•Understanding the concepts and challenges relating to the SVS;

•Understanding how to use a ‘shift-left’ approach;

•Knowing how to plan and manage resources in the SVS; and

•Understanding the use and value of information and technology across the SVS.

This information provides the foundation for the activities and choices practitioners and managers can use as services are created, delivered and supported.

SVS concepts and challenges: Organisational structure

The way an organisation is structured will have an impact on how it works. Structure affects how people work together, how decisions are made, and how new ideas are shared.

Think about the structure or your current, or most recent, employer. Does it fall into one of these types? What benefits did the organisational structure offer? Did it create any challenges?

The key differences between organisational structures are often defined by:

•Grouping/team basis (e.g. product, function, customer);

•Location – co-located or not;

•Relationship to value streams – responsible for individual step(s) or an entire value stream; and

•Levels of autonomy and authority (command and control vs delegation or self-organising teams).

Digital transformation requires organisations to be more flexible and agile, which has an impact on structure. Matrix structures, resource pools and the ability to use external staff can all offer benefits. Some organisations are moving from project-based to product-based teams to provide consistency and ownership from demand to value. Any change in organisation structure should have appropriate change controls applied.

Take a look at the Banksbest case study and read about the organisation’s relationship with Employeez on Demand. This supplier provides extra resources during peak times. What would Banksbest need to consider from a contractual and a service management perspective to ensure its customers receive a good service when they are speaking to Employeez on Demand staff?

SVS concepts and challenges: Integrated/collaborative culture

Collaboration and cooperation are separate concepts that should not be confused. Collaboration requires active and passive participation from all people and groups in the organisation to be effective. Cooperation is often based around goals; a group that is focused solely on its own goal can become a silo as it loses sight of the bigger picture.

For collaboration to take place, goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) for groups need to be shared, integrated, and aligned to organisational goals.

* PESTLE analysis looks at these factors as part of an analysis:

•Political

•Economical

•Social

•Technological

•Legal

•Environmental

The work that a team does may be classed as algorithmic or heuristic.

Think about your typical working day. How much of your work is pre-planned, and how much just ‘happens’? Are your tasks algorithmic or heuristic? Algorithmic tasks may be suitable for automation or improvement, but to identify that, you will also need time to review what you are doing. Teams, for example, that spend much of their time firefighting and carrying out reactive work may struggle to find time to identify ways to do things better.

Collaboration happens within IT teams, as well as with service consumers, service provider employees, shareholders, regulators, partners, suppliers, and any other relevant stakeholders. Whether an organisation offers business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-consumer (B2C) services also has an impact on the stakeholders it will need to collaborate with. Technology (such as Slack or Microsoft Teams) can support collaboration, but don’t forget the guiding principle is to collaborate and promote visibility. Don’t lose information because it’s hidden in a tool.

The digital economy is also imposing new challenges on organisational leaders, as well as organisational structures. Servant leadership is an approach that allows leaders and managers to focus on supporting rather than directing staff.

Looking back over your career, how many managers have you worked with who have genuinely inspired you? How many senior people have helped you to develop and made you

Reviews for ITIL® 4 Create, Deliver and Support (CDS)

[Jakup · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Way too better than the official Axelos publication. Easier to read and comprehend.